Russian Red Guards

The Russian Red Guards were Bolshevik paramilitary forces that consisted of factory workers, revolutionary soldiers, and sailors. The Red Guards were formed in 1917 during the Kornilov Affair of September 1917, with Russian Provisional Government leader Alexander Kerensky arming factory workers to resist Lavr Kornilov's attempted coup. The coup never came to be, but the Red Guards kept their guns. Leon Trotsky and the Petrograd Soviet would lead the Red Guards during the October Revolution of November 1917, which saw the Red Guards and revolutionary soldiers seize key points in the city of Petrograd (St. Petersburg) and help in toppling the socialist regime. The Red Guards would become core units of the Red Army during the Russian Civil War in 1918.